3 R's To Include Computer Literacy

February 28, 1996|By Mike Berry of The Sentinel Staff

SANFORD — Elementary school children should know what a cursor is. Middle-school students should know how to use a word processor. And high-school students should be able to create a spreadsheet to solve a specific problem.

Those are some of the skills laid out in new computer literacy guidelines just completed for Seminole County schools.

While all students inevitably get some exposure to computers in the classroom, this is the district's first attempt to make sure that everyone graduates with a certain level of computer literacy.

Some teachers are ready and eager to adopt the new measures, while others are hesitant, said curriculum director Dee Schumacher. Special teacher training for those who need it will begin in April, she said.

''I personally would like teachers to use technology as easily as a piece of chalk,'' said Don Bates, a curriculum specialist who helped draw up the guidelines.

Computer instruction will be woven into other studies rather than taught as a separate subject, Bates said. One example would be to have social studies students use a CD-ROM encyclopedia to look up a certain subject.

Students are not expected to become programmers but should know enough to sit down at a computer and at least get it going, Bates said.

The literacy guidelines don't refer to specific programs. Students are typically exposed to Macintosh programs in early grades and IBM or similar programs later on.